How to Detect and Disable an AirBnb’s Hidden Wi-Fi Camera

Airbnb renters keep finding hidden Wi-Fi cameras watching them without them knowing. If you want to ensure your privacy in a rental, this shell script will find any Wi-Fi cameras on the network and disable them.

While Airbnb suggests that hosts respect their guests’ privacy, they don’t explicitly say that hosts can’t have video or audio surveillance equipment installed and monitoring guests. This understandably bothers a lot of people who expect privacy in a rental they’re paying for.

Fortunately, engineer and software developer Julian Oliver came up with a simple script to knock those types of cameras offline. Once you connect to the Airbnb’s Wi-Fi, a quick run of Oliver’s dropkick.sh script will find and disconnect the Wi-Fi enabled cameras on the network and give you some privacy.

Before you make the decision to use the script, however, Oliver explains that it may be illegal to run due to changes made by the FCC last year. So use the script at your own risk.